On Sunday, Lance Armstrong broke his own record to become the first man to win the Tour de France seven times. The American cyclist's seventh consecutive victory had added poignancy as it also marked his retirement.

"Will he be missed?" asked Owen Slot in the Times. "Like hell he will. He has exerted an all-powerful, unchallengeable influence over the event, but you will not find too many bemoaning his departure." European cycling fans "can dream again of hailing their own heroes", noted Slot.

French enthusiasts especially had never taken to the American, whose "unprecedented streak remains clouded by doping suspicions among some observers, even though he is the sport's most tested athlete and has never failed one", wrote the Wall Street Journal Europe. "Yet in the end Armstrong seems to have won a measure of begrudging respect from the French ... [who] tend to be fonder of heroes once they've surrendered the pinnacle."

The International Herald Tribune sympathised with Gallic frustration that a Frenchman had not won a Tour de France in 20 years. "But it should be a matter of satisfaction to France that Armstrong has endowed the race, and the sport, with true international sex appeal."

Noting that he had faced life-threatening cancer, the Washington Times reckoned that "Armstrong's impact is twofold: as a champion athlete and an inspirational survivor. Although he retired [on Sunday] from his role as the former, we know he will never cease to be the latter."

The Sun agreed. "To win the Tour de France just once takes strength, courage, skill and guts," it marvelled. "So what does it need to win it seven times - after beating cancer of the testicle, lung and brain? It needs a superman - Lance Armstrong."

So what did the future hold for him? The Daily Mail's Leo McKinstry noted that the cyclist had "shown some interest in politics, with talk that he might run for governor of his home state, Texas".

But George Vecsey, in the New York Times, advised against it. "If anybody proposes politics to Armstrong ... he should fix his best glower on them ... Armstrong seems to have the right idea ... [On Sunday], he said he was likely to string guitars for his girlfriend, Sheryl Crow, the rock singer."